Decision to permit Heathrow third runway facing Judicial Review
Tuesday 23rd February sees the start of court proceedings challenging the Government’s controversial decision to give the go ahead to a third runway at Heathrow.
A coalition of thirteen organisations is backing the legal challenge. It is made up of local councils, leading green groups and residents’ groups, representing millions of people. The coalition’s lawyers will be claiming in court that the consultation process was fundamentally flawed and that the decision to expand Heathrow is at odds with the UK’s overall climate change targets. If they win, the Government’s decision to proceed with the runway will be overturned.
The organisations also argue, supported by Transport for London, that there is no evidence to support the Government’s claim that there will be enough public transport to serve the new runway.
The decision to proceed with a third runway was made by the then Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon in a statement to Parliament in January 2009. He tried to win Parliament over by proposing a number of additional environmental measures. The coalition is alleging that these measures mean the expansion is fundamentally different to the proposals on which the Government consulted the public in 2007. Worse still, the Government's lawyers are now backpedalling by claiming the new measures were not part of the decision to expand Heathrow.
One of the measures announced was a new target to bring carbon emissions from aviation back to 2005 levels by 2050. The Government asked the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) how it could meet this target. The CCC responded by telling the Government it would have to severely curtail its plans for airport expansion throughout the UK. The coalition argues that the expansion of Heathrow cannot now proceed, since the policy of which it is a part has been discredited.
Another of the measures would see the runway only being used at half its capacity until a review in 2020 could check to see if noise and air pollution as well as carbon targets could be met. But imposing this limit destroys the economic case for a third runway and will be no comfort to the residents of the Sipson, since their village would be destroyed either way.
Alistair McGowan, who is one of the owners of the 'Airplot' in Sipson, said, "I'm here today because, like the residents of Sipson, I'm enraged about the Government's seemingly unquenchable passion to tarmac over my land - land which I now own with over 65,000 people from around the world. I hope that the ministers who wouldn't listen to already suffering west Londoners, highly respected climate scientists or battling local councils will listen to the courts. I don't want to end up having to fend off BAA with a pitchfork and a large bull."
Martin Harper, RSPB, Head of Sustainable Development said, "We have said before that the Government's decision to allow a third runway when we desperately need to reduce carbon emissions was fundamentally flawed.
Climate change threatens many species with extinction and we are already seeing its impacts with catastrophic declines in seabird numbers in parts of the North Sea. It is right that a bad decision such as this should be challenged"
HACAN Chair John Stewart added, “Although it is clear that a third runway may well be scrapped after the General Election, we can’t take anything for granted. If we lose this legal challenge, it will not be the end of the world, but, if we win, it will make it ever more difficult for any Government to build the third runway.”
John Sauven, Executive Director of Greenpeace said, “It’s been clear from the start, that there has been huge opposition to this runway. Nearly 90% of the people who responded to the consultation opposed the expansion of Heathrow. Yet mysteriously the government gave the go ahead. This gives a clear demonstration of how little they value the views of the public. Now we’ve got the chance to submit this process to legal scrutiny. We don’t expect the courts to be any more impressed with it than we were.”
February 25, 2010